For your race-day bike do you have a Terralogic or Brain fork, a bar-mounted lockout or a crown lockout? Or no lockout?

My new bike came with a Terralogic, but I like the RockShox offerings for their feel and ease of maintenance (for my needs and riding style). Took a few test rides and the Terralogic is nice. But then it has the usual Fox feel.

My older race bike has a Reba Brain, and it's pretty good. I think the Terralogic works better than the Brain, but the Reba has a better feel.

Another bike has a crown mounted lockout and that gets real old real fast for me. Seem to set it on a higher low speed compression, adjust the flood gate and get a "90% good everywhere" feel.

A good combo may be a RockShox with a bar-mounted lever, but for a race bike does it get cumbersome to keep locking and unlocking vs just set-and-forget ala Brain or Terralogic?

I have a 2009 S-Works Epic with brain. Never ride it, hate the suspension. I've been riding and racing my Santa Cruz BLT with a 2010 talas and 2010 RP23, I don't ever use the lock out on the fork but I do use the propedal (which is the furthest thing from lock out, someone at a bike shop tried to convince me that it was at the last race....). I am currently working on ordering a new bike for XC racing it's going to be a Mach 5.7 carbon with XX fork and shock so it will have lock out on the bars.

I like the idea of the electronic suspension but it will probably take a few years for them to make it good. The fox stuff Pendrel is using doesn't seem any better than the XX remotes (it doesn't seem to have an automatic function) but the use of the Di2 battery is very interesting...I want Di2. Maybe it's coming? Hopefully?

I have a Reba with lockout on the crown but I'd be on a Terralogic if I could afford it. I was going to send my Reba in for the Brain transplant but local Specialized dealer said they had a ton of Rebas with Brain dead on arrival. SID with Brain is apparently having better luck.

for me I prefer the remote lockout than anything. I can predict how the bike responds. Firm when I am out of saddle, plush when I am sitting down riding

Agree. My favorite set-up by far is remote lock-out on the bars. That way I can be fully plush for 95% of the ride and then fully locked out for hard out of the saddle efforts, all with the push of a button.

Do not like the brain. Great in theory, but it just doesnít work right IMO. Assuming I have the brain set in the middle, there is just too much bob when I get out of the saddle and hammer (doesn't firm up the fork as much as I like) and when I hit a rocky section, itís not as plush as it should be as you can feel the brain valve opening and closing. If I set the brain to full hard, it fixes one of these problems but just makes the other worse and vice versa if I set it to easy. I recently pulled the brain out of the fork and installed remote lock-out. Some of the best bike related money I have ever spent (especially if I can find a buyer of the brain cartridge I took out!). The tech that did the work was also pretty amazed regarding how much more plush the fork is.

Love my brain. Took some time to get it set right but with proper settings and pressures it is ideal. Tried the Terralogic and just couldn't get proper riding function without hammer bob (or vice versa).

Definitely not a fan of the Brain or Terralogic at all. The remote lockouts are nice, and I really like the way the new SID XX worked, but I get tired of switching on and off all the time so I am going back to no lockout. I just picked up a new WB Loop, and I am pretty impressed thus far. I only have one ride on it, but the new Aura damper seems like it will be great once I get it dialed. Out of the box it feels great, and I haven't even gotten through the break in yet. It is on the heavy side at 4lb 4oz though.

Had a Brain Reba and now a SID XX WC with remote lockout. I like to have the control over the lockout vs the Brain. It is much better to be able to leave the fork open on technical climbing sections and then lock it out when I want to stand up. The other consideration is the potential cost of having to send the fork to Specialized to get service. I liked the idea of the Brain stuff but at the end of the day I had to wait 7 weeks to get my shock back from Specialized when it was time for my Epic 29er's normal service. God forbid something occurred in the middle of race season. I would have been with out a bike for almost 2 months. Proprietary stuff on the Specialized all seems great (Brain, 142+ hub, etc.) until something breaks at a bad time. Then you are screwed and can't borrow a wheel, find a local shop that can repair it, or just buy a seal kit and do it your self. Reality is Brain didn't make me any faster than I am now and caused more headaches then anything.

Standard crown lockout. No bar clutter, no cables to get gummed up, less weight. It is not that hard to reach down. In fact, I found that the remotes I've had are more of a distraction to my riding than a crown lockout.

I have remote lockout on my Reba RL. Just ordered a SID XX though. Handlebar is my preference for sure. Quick, easy, and since I run a 1x10 there's no more cables than a regular bike. That said, my buddies FS Stumpjumper with the brain shock is awesome Works flawlessly.. Brain makes sense for me on the rear shock, but not so much for the fork. Suspension bob is more pronounced on the rear of a bike anyway.

Lefty XLR on a hardtail. Hydraulic remote lockout with a very stiff threshold and no mush off the top like most Rock Shox lockouts. Use it all the time and it's a great execution of a lockout. I use it just on the road, when standing, and in smooth corners.

I've had crown lockouts before and there just isn't often time to switch it when racing, especially if you forget going into a descent. I never locked them out because it just wasn't worth the risk of forgetting or trying to switch it at race pace over technical terrain.

I think the terralogic would work great on a hardtail to keep things balanced in hard corners and avoid compressing the fork and sending the geometry all screwy, but I wonder if it would make the suspension seem unbalanced front to rear on a full suspension.

Lefty XLR on a hardtail. Hydraulic remote lockout with a very stiff threshold and no mush off the top like most Rock Shox lockouts. Use it all the time and it's a great execution of a lockout. I use it just on the road, when standing, and in smooth corners.

I've had crown lockouts before and there just isn't often time to switch it when racing, especially if you forget going into a descent. I never locked them out because it just wasn't worth the risk of forgetting or trying to switch it at race pace over technical terrain.

I think the terralogic would work great on a hardtail to keep things balanced in hard corners and avoid compressing the fork and sending the geometry all screwy, but I wonder if it would make the suspension seem unbalanced front to rear on a full suspension.

Agree. My favorite set-up by far is remote lock-out on the bars. That way I can be fully plush for 95% of the ride and then fully locked out for hard out of the saddle efforts, all with the push of a button.

Do not like the brain. Great in theory, but it just doesnít work right IMO. Assuming I have the brain set in the middle, there is just too much bob when I get out of the saddle and hammer (doesn't firm up the fork as much as I like) and when I hit a rocky section, itís not as plush as it should be as you can feel the brain valve opening and closing. If I set the brain to full hard, it fixes one of these problems but just makes the other worse and vice versa if I set it to easy. I recently pulled the brain out of the fork and installed remote lock-out. Some of the best bike related money I have ever spent (especially if I can find a buyer of the brain cartridge I took out!). The tech that did the work was also pretty amazed regarding how much more plush the fork is.

Now I just have to figure out the shock...

I'm also looking at de-braining. I was wondering what year/model your fork is and which internals you replaced the brain with?

My fork is a 2012 SID XX 29er. Not exactly sure on the specifics of the internals. I just told my LBS that I wanted to go to remote lock out and ditch the brain. They called Rockshox and ordered up the parts. My guess is that Rockshox only offers 1 option on internals...whatever their remote lockout system is for that fork. Hope that helps...

My fork is a 2012 SID XX 29er. Not exactly sure on the specifics of the internals. I just told my LBS that I wanted to go to remote lock out and ditch the brain. They called Rockshox and ordered up the parts. My guess is that Rockshox only offers 1 option on internals...whatever their remote lockout system is for that fork. Hope that helps...

Thanks very much for the info. I take it that it was just the internals that needed replacing and not the crown/steerer assembly? How much did it cost you?

Just about any store can order parts. Qbp stocks most of the damper parts. You just need the 29er 100mm xx damper with remote or rct3 damper.
I'd get you qbp part numbers, but i'm doing this from my phone not a computer.